Knitted garment



D. C. 0 SHEA.

KNITTED GARMENT,

APPLICATION FILED MAY 29. I917- Patented Oct. 19, 1920.

Imam/3 07 llldl'lEQ STATES PATENT OFFICE.

nnnivis c. OSHEA, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

KNITTED GARMENT.

L356 1j8 Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Oct 19, 192() v Application filed May 29. 1917. Serial No. 171,662.

To all 10 item it may concern:

lie it known that I, Dennis G. OSHEA, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful improvement in Knitted Garments, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to certain new and USO/fill improvements in knitted garments, and is especially applicable to garments of the type of sweater jackets, which are formed of a plurality of sections of relatively'heavy knittedfabric secured to one anotherby seams. It is an object of my invention to provide means by 'which the seams of such a garment may be adequately reinforced without sacrificing the inherent advantages of knitted garments.

it is a further objectof the invention to improve the fit of the garment, particularly as to the collar and shoulders thereof. It is a. still further object to provide reinforcing means of such a character that the half mittens formed on the sleeve ends in accordance with the invention of my ap plication for golfers jacket filed May29, 1917, Serial No. 171,661, tageously employed.

My invention will be fully understood from the following" detailed description I of a specific embodiment thereof, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is an inside face view of a knitted sweater jacket spread open to expose the seams thereof, and Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of the left-hand portion of the collar and shoulder seams, showing the mean employed to reinforce the same.

It will be understood that it has heretofore been the practice to reinforce the seams of knitted garments, such as weater j ackets, by the use of a strip of woven fabric of suilicient strength to meet the strains imposed in the use of the garment. This practice answered the immediate purpose of reinforcing the seam, but entailed the disadvantage of sacrificing the perfect elasticity of the garment. The method of reinforcement heretofore employed has also failed to overcome the tendency common to knitted garments of the nature of jackets to gape or pull away at the neck and shoulder. By my invention this defect is remedied.

may be advan- According to my invention, the collar,

seam, designated. in the drawing by the ,numerallO, andthe shoulderseam, desig nated 11, by which the sleeves are joined to the collar and shoulders are reinforced by strips of knitted fabric designated 12 and 13, respectively, these knitted strips being preferably formed of the sameyarn which is employed in the body of the garment,

being the same color, and identical in all respects with the material of'the garment itself, save that in, their knitting asst-itch is employed which is closer and. stronger than the stitch employed'in the garment. These reinforcing strips 12 and 13 are secured to the inner face of the garment and.

overlap the meeting edges of the seamed. parts, the arrangement being. shown in the drawings.

The same method of reinforcement may beemployed for securing the buttons along the front of the jacket, as indicated at 14 in Fig. 1, and at any other place.

By myinvention all of the inherent advantages of a knit garment are fully retained in spite of the fact that the garment is made up of a plurality of sections joined by seams. These seams are adequately reinforced by reinforcing strips of knitted fabric, as described, but the seams when re inforced still retain the same elasticity and ability to yieldin every direction to conform to the curves and to the movements of the body, which is possessed by the garment itself.

Among the other advantages of my present invention may be mentioned the following: The reinforced seams being capable of stretching in every direction in the same manner as the garment itself, there is no danger of the garment becoming deformed and ill-fitting through unequal stretching of the adjacent parts, as is the case where the seams are rigidly heldin their original form by an inelastic reinforcing strip; wrinkling or deformation of the garment through unequal shrinkingis likewise obshoulder or neck exhibited by knitted garments in particular is overcome, the collar being caused to hug closely to the neck The separate reinforcing strips 13 which are used for the sleeve seams adequately strengthen these parts without permitting the natural.

pull upon the sleeve to cause the garmeni to gape at the neck.

The arrangement of the knitted fabric reinforcing strips shown and described is of peculiar benefit in connectionwith a garment having mitten backs formed integrally on the ends of the sleeve as shown at let, and designed to be caught over the knuckles of the wearer, as by finger loops 15, this construction being fully described in my co-pending application referred to. Where such mitten backs are secured to the sleeve ends, the natural tendency of a close fitting sleeve to pull away from the shoulder may be aggravated, particularly if the sleeves are not of sufiicient length.

By the use of the knitted fabric reinforcements 13 on the shoulder seams connected by the intermediate portion of the knitted reinforcement 12 on the collar seam, the entire garment from one sleeve end across the shoulder and collar and down to the other sleeve end is elastic and free to yield. By adding the elasticity of the shoulder or collar portion to that of the sleeves all danger of ripping or tearing at the shoulder seam is obviated, and, furthermore, the outward pull upon the sleeve sections is not transmitted to the collar in such a manner as to cause the same to gape.

While I have shown and described in considerable detail one specific embodiment of my invention, it will be understood this is illustrative only and for the purpose of making the invention more clear and that I do not regard the invention; as limited to these details nor to any of them, except in so far as such limitations are included within the terms of the accompanying claims in which it is my intention to claim all novelty inherent in my invention as broadly as is permissible in view of the prior art.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A knitted jacket comprising a knit body portion, collar and sleeves, the said parts being joined by seams, a reinforcing strip of knitted fabric more closely knitted than that of the body extending along the inside face of the collar seam from a point in front of the shoulder on one side to a corresponding point on the other side, and separate reinforcing means of the same character as said first-named reinforcing strip applied to the inner faces of the sleeves and joining them with the said collar reinforcement'.

2. A knitted jacket comprising a knit body portion, collar and sleeves, the said parts being joined by seams, extensionscarried by the said sleeves, means for securing said extensions to the hand of the wearer. and knitted fabric seam reinforcing means joining the said sleeves to the said collar.

3. A knitted jacket comprising a knit body portion, collar and sleeves, the said parts being joined by seams, a reinforcing strip of knitted fabric lying over the inside face of the collar seam and extending from a point beyond the shoulder on one side to a point beyond the shoulder on the other side, separate knitted fabric reinforcements con necting the said reinforcing strip with the said sleeves, extensions carried by said sleeves, and means for securing said extensions to the hands of the wearer.

DENNIS C. OSHEA. 

